Rooster comb and wattles overtaken by white growth, please help!

[leighsunflower]

Hello all, I posted back in January about my rooster "Flash", who I though had a mild case of frostbite. See pic below:

However, things have changed dramatically. His whole comb, wattles, and above eyes are covered with a white growth. I got him out today to try and wash off what I thought was dust or DE build up and it's def. a growth that will not wash off and seems to be a part of him now. He doesn't seem to be in any pain. He eats and drinks normally, crows and seems to be just as active as he always was. I recently had to separate him from the main flock because him and another rooster started fighting to the blood. His comb along with the other rooster's were pretty bad. See pic below of "Flash's" cock fight comb.

I applied neosporin, non-medicated to both their combs. My other rooster seemed to heal prefect with a healthy red comb now however, "Flash" ended up looking like this. See pic below.

PLEASE, if anyone knows what this is, your help would be greatly appreciated. I'm worried he has some sort of disease or overgrowth of some sort of fungus, maybe. Not sure.

Thanks in advance for time and help. Have a great day everyone.

Leigh Ann Wallace

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Hello! I am not a vet, I am only a nurse (for humans!) but people DO get thrush from topically applied antibiotics. Neosporin is an antibiotic. Typically, thrush appears as white patches which don't wash off, but the edges will bleed when you try to rub it off. I know of a little boy (human) who's scalp developed a 15cm diameter patch of thrush after neosporin, it required IV antifungal medication to stop the growth. Sometimes fungii will flouresc under black light (aka "Wood's Light"), so if you don't have access to a vet to check out his white patches, try turning on a black light source to see if the white patches glow. But if the white patches are thrush, I don't know how to treat it on a chicken, other than avoiding antibiotics to help prevent more fungal growth. In people, high blood sugar also can contribute to fungal overgrowth, so we sometimes use a low carbohdrate diet to help combat the growth. Is somebody sneaking cookies to your Roo?

 

[ams3651]

the above is a good suggestion. Im thinking it looks dead or damaged by the extensive frost bite. Hope you get it figured out soon.

 

[birdlover]

It looks like a fungus (thrush?) but I'm shooting in the dark here. Years ago, my newborn baby got thrush in his mouth due to uncleanliness at the hospital (so I was told anyway). I had to put gentian violet on it. It must not be harmful (gentian violet) as I had to put it directly in his mouth. Contact a vet and ask if that will harm your boy. That being said, I'd probably TAKE him to the vets to be 100" sure. Best of luck!

 

[leighsunflower]

Thanks ladies for the suggestions. From what I can gather on the internet it may be FAVUS, which is a fungal infection. Does anyone know anything about Favus in poultry? and any home remedies to help it? I've called 3 vets that say they do not deal with chickens. So I feel like I might have to try some home remedies to help him.

 

[ams3651]

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/59/favus

Daily topical treatment with miconazole was applied in the field and in the laboratory, with apparent success
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1953587?dopt=Abstract

this one says to quarantine him and use gloves when handling him
http://books.google.com/books?id=oB...9vzvCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

We think your Roo is such a pretty boy, we are sorry for his sick comb! Hope it doesn't hurt!

We just remembered one of our pediatricians taught us to change the pH of our baby's skin by rinsing with a 10% vinegar solution after diaper changes to help prevent thrush. I can still remember him saying, "if it's thrush, changing the pH will stop it fast". He told us to mix one teaspoon white vinegar in one cup water (not uncomfortably cold or hot!) and apply with cottonball. I don't know if that would work on a rooster's comb! And if it did stop the white problem, would that be good or would it get worse? I sure wish there was a chicken vet to ask!

Goooood Luck. He really is a pretty boy. We have a sweetie pie Roo, too, but he looks like an alien.

By the way, I had a patient from India with FAVUS scalp, it looked nothing like your roo. It looked like thick grey poupon stones. But metronidazole and nystatin powder or ointment or oral medication is commonly prescribed to people for all types of fungal infections.

 

[ivan3]

Just thought I'd add a link to something that sounds very much like what you're seeing:

`Comb Candidiasis': http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1637/0005-2086%282007%2951%5B618%3ACCARIA%5D2.0.CO%3B2?cookieSet=1&journalCode=avdi

As mentioned already: Miconazole or Nystatin cream

 

[MoodyChicken]

Aw, poor boy! Everyone else has some good suggestions, I'm really not sure. The comb turns white when blood isn't flowing through it. Perhaps the entire comb is dead. When he heals, I'd dub him to eliminate the current and any future problems. Such a shame, he's very handsome, but a good deal of the comb looks dead, and it'd be better to lose his comb than his life if an infection sets in. You could dub him like and Old English so he still has part of his comb. The OE dub is a very pretty cut for a bird, at least I think so.

 

[diornisextant]

Try Miconazole ointment or cream from the vet or I imagine a farm supply will have it . There are human topical fungal(yeast products that are over the counter that could work as well ,. Lotrimin, desenex powder applied with finger tips rather than dusted- I have dusted my African grey in the past who has a small patch of feathers that he plucks .No problems resulted and he seemed to be relieved. I now shower him twice daily with a gentle Chlorahexadine surgical disinfectant added and that helps quite a bit. just a couple of drops to a quart . I had a feather plucker that was diagnosed wth a fungal infection after death so i decided to try this after my grey started a small amount of plucking and chewing. It has made a huge difference and there is almost no damaged area left . Fungal infections tend to be recurrent so it may need to be a life long maintenance treatment, Sugar is also key as mentioned previously. Many birds with GI yeast infections improve a lot when simple sugars are removed frm the diet . fruits included. Atkins diet for the roo.